a.m. show. i will be getting up early. gregg: "fox and friends" first. "happening now" begins right now. bye-bye. jon: right now brand new stories and breaking news. snow, rain, heavy winds and ice. the northeast slammed with a powerful storm. now we're tracking another one. plus three cops shot on the job when gunfire breaks out at a police station in new jersey. accusations of using children to make a political point. we'll tell you about that "happening now" jon: good morning i'm jon scott along with harris faulkner. with just days to go until the fiscal cliff deadline president obama and top congressional leaders are set for a crucial meeting. expectations are low for a deal when house and senate

leaders head to the white house this afternoon to meet there with president obama. lawmakers are increasingly looking at the period following the december 31st deadline we're told to come up with a fix to avoid massive tax hikes and spending cuts, affect lives of nearly every american many economists say could plunge the economy into another recession. chief white house correspondent ed henry live with the latest. so in this meeting, ed, is there any hope they will accomplish anything? >> reporter: well it is pretty low expectations, jon. what we're expecting when you talk to top officials of both parties the president will offer a scaled back plan, something he laid out lines friday before christmas here in the white house briefing room before he went to hawaii. where he said look, we have to scale back expectations. basically just extend middle class tax cuts. don't worry about the rates for everyone else. secondly extend unememployment insurance for about two million people who will be losing it a few days from now at the end of the

year. finally he refer to possibility of smaller bit ever spending cuts. not major entitlement rerecall to. not major cuts to medicare like had been on the table in so-called plan a, the $4 trillion debt deal he and john boehner had been talking about for weeks. so we might see a small bit of spending cuts just to stave off the sequester, the massive amount of spending cuts that will kick in at the beginning of the year to harm the pentagon and other agencies. if they are getting anything, there are low expectations but if they get anything it will be a very small deal, something much smaller than they have been talking about for weeks, jon. jon: there aren't too many people these meetings. so a little hard to get an assessment, what is your idea, what is your best, yeah, assessment i guess how things are between some of these leaders? >> reporter: they have gotten pretty tense the last couple of days as they have come back from the christmas holiday. we saw yesterday senate majority leader harry reid basically accusing john boehner of running a deck

tate toreship, that was his word in the house of representatives. reid piled on a little bit late yesterday afternoon and senate republican leader mitch mcconnell responded. take a listen. >> speaker boehner should call members of the house back to washington today. he shouldn't have let them two in fact. they're not here. they're not here. john boehner seeps to care more about keeping his speakership than about keeping the nation on firm financial footing. >> reporter: there have been all eyes on senator mitch mcconnell, the republican leader, the counterpart to harry reid because he has been pretty quiet early on in the negotiations. was defering speaker boehner to give the republican side. after hearing senator reid yesterday, senator mcconnell fired back. take a listen. >> we're coming up against a hard deadline here and i said, this is a conversation we should had months ago. and republicans aren't about to write a blank check for

anything senate democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff. >> reporter: now senator mcconnell also said he was disappointed because when he got a call from the president two nights ago right before the president left hawaii to come back here to the white house, senator mcconnell says that was the first time he heard from any democrat, president, senator reid, nancy pelosi, anybody in about a month in terms of talking about the fiscal cliff. so everyone has sort of delayed really facing all of th up against the deadline now, jon. jon: that seems clear. ed henry at the white house there. ed, thank you. stay on it for us. for more on this let's bring in the editor of "campaigns & elections" magazine, shane deapril. campaigns and elections might be appropriate here because some say there is a lot of political posturing going on. you have said the feeling in washington it might actually be better to go over the cliff and come back and

negotiate. why? >> yeah. now, this is of course purely political campaign calculation here, tossing aside the nation's fiscal health frankly. for both side i think there is good argument to be made for congressional leaders, democratic leaders and republican leaders in particular, there may be less political risk here actually if we do go over the cliff and figure out a solution very quickly afterwards. if you go back to what happened with plan b, speaker boehner could not get, get that through his caucus in the house simply because you have many republican members sitting in very conservative districts who would absolutely not vet for anything that could put them at risk of a primary challenge in a year from now. frankly, for a lot of those members, voting for plan b, probably would have. there is a pure campaign calculation that is going on here and i think that, on the part of democrats and republicans there is a

overall feeling they might get a better deal for themselves politically in the campaign context if we go over the cliff and figure out a solution in january. jon: interesting, you heard ed henry's report just now he talked about how senate majority leader reid was describing john boehner as a dick dictator. sounds like like anything but if he can't corral the votes in his caucus. >> not just boehner but whether senate majority leader harry reid would be able to get his caucus on board with a big are bipartisan deal. that is unlikely that would be able to occur. it is not just the house republican caucus showing signs of difficulty for their, for the speaker. it's also the senate democratic caucus. i think harry reid would have trouble there, if you're looking for larger, more overarching compromise that gives republicans some of what they want in terms of entitlement cuts and other spending cuts. jon: everybody's taxes are

scheduled to go up on january 1 and it doesn't look like there's going to be anything happening to avert that. does that give republicans, even the most conservative republicans, an opportunity to go in and vote for some kind of a package that cuts taxes from the post-january 1 levels and therefore, say, yeah, i did not vote to increase taxes? >> well, exactly. there is a political argument to be made. and again thinking in a campaign context for republican members of the house, that if indeed we go over the cliff, and you then come back and do something that essentially, you know, votes to cut those tax rates for a large portion of americans republicans can make the argument that we did not vote to increase taxes. we didn't take that vote before the beginning of the year. we went over the cliff and found a better solution perhaps afterwards. i indeed think that is the campaign calculation some are going to make. jon: but then again the

white house and the senate are controlled by democrats and they don't seem to have put forward much of a plan either so. what a mess. shane deapril, from "campaigns & elections" magazine. shane, thank you. >> thank you, jon. harris: fox weather alert now. parts of the eastern united states bracing for even more snow this weekend. forecasters say states from the ohio valley to the northeast could be hit. fortunately it is not expected to be quite as severe as the storm we saw that hit over christmas and into yesterday. but states like new jersey will be under several inches of snow. upstate new york from this past storm, got slammed with nearly 20 inches of it. meteorologist maria molina is live in the fox extreme weather center. >> harris, good to see you. we got the brand new computer models updated and chances are increasing to see more snow from the storm. eastern porgss of massachusetts, connecticut and the state of rhode

island could look at over six inches of snow with areas possibly seeing a foot of snow. so again the chance of seeing more snow from this next storm system is increasing here. it is pulling in a lot of moisture from the gulf of mexico. that is one of the reasons why we think we could see a little more than originally anticipated. right now it is producing snow across areas in chicago, northern parts of the state of indiana that into michigan. on the southern end of the storm system we have showers and thunderstorms in louisiana, mississippi and tennessee. eventually both of these areas will be coming together and moving towards the northeast. i do quickly want to point out between these areas we're actually seeing freezing rain falling early this morning across places in arkansas and northern texas. please drive carefully out there. that is outside the city of memphis as well. western portions of state of tennessee dealing with possible icing on the roadways. otherwise a number of winter weather advisories issued for the state of new jersey, pennsylvania and across the mid-atlantic where we're expecting to see some accumulation of snowfall.

interior sections of the northeast, you're not expecting too much snow. the storm will be quick mover. many areas will see the snow including new york city and places in upstate new york and pennsylvania of the by sunday the storm is gone leaving behind some windy conditions. here is a look at the computer model, harris i just mentioned. that shading in blue? that is where you could see a foot of snow. more likely these areas will deal with a little bit more snow. harris: that patch of blue has gotten larger than it was 24 hours ago. maria, thank you very much. >> thank you. harris: america is saying good-bye to american legend. general norman schwarzkopf has died. he is known for his name mouse leadership in operation desert storm and for decades of service to our nation. >> you're better equipped. >> reporter: the commander of u.s.-led international coalition forces that drove saddam hussein out of kuwait in 1991 has died. general herbert norman

schwarzkopf was a much decorated combat soldier in vietnam as more popularly known to the public as "stormin' norman". it was a coalition of 30 countries original niced by then president george h.w. bush that succeeded in defeating iraqis. president bush remains hospitalized in houston in methodist hospital he had a statement that reads in part. he is one of the great military leaders of his generation. a distinguished member of the long gray line hailing from west point, general norman schwarzkopf to me epitomized duty, service, country and creed that defended our country's freedom and seen the nation through our most trying international crisis. he was appointed general and appointed commander-in-chief of u.s. central command. he prepared a detailed plan for defense of saudi oil fields against the iraqis. general colin powell released this statement in

part, with the passing of general norman schwarzkopf, america has lost a great patriot and soldier. he has served his country with distinguished patriot him for 35 years. general schwarzkopf could have died in tampa. he was 78 years old. harris: general schwarzkopf could have credited again with leading the u.s. to victory in the first gulf war. stay close. we'll be right back.

harris: right now some crime headlines we're keeping an eye on. three police officers wounded in a shooting at a new jersey police station. it happened in gloucester. we're told the man who was in custody there was shot and killed and there is no danger now to the wider public. the trial for craig's list murder suspect richard beasley is being delayed. it was supposed to start next week but has been put off until february so his newly hired attorneys can be put up to speed.

he posted help wanted ads on craig's list and robbing and killing people when they responded. a 17-month-old girl reported missing in california more than two months ago found safe in kentucky. university of kentucky police saying they got a call about a suspicious person on campus last night. when they checked it out, they found the baby with a woman who claims to be her grandmother. jon: a cyberattack on one of our nation's most elite foreign policy organizations. the website of the council on foreign relations targeted in a sophisticated attack. chinese hackers are suspected of using a new ploy called a drive-by. apparently getting into the server that operates the website and using the system to attack cfr members and others who visited the site. doug luzader is keeping an eye on that from washington. this is a website, doug, visited by a lot of powerful people. >> reporter: jon, good morning that may have been

the motivation behind this attack. according to the washington beacon, computer specialists think that chinese hackers may have been behind this if you go to the website itself, everything works just fine. that is apparently the nature of this kind of attack where hackers are just out to glean information. the council did send fox news a statement about the situation saying that the council on foreign relations website security team is aware of the issue and is currently investigating the situation. we're also working to mitigate the possibility for future events of this sort. now, again according to the free beacon the fbi is aware of what happened and they're looking into it but some of these attackers are notoriously difficult to track down. in fact, just a few days ago the secretary of homeland security, janet napolitano, walked, excuse me, talked about major security threats the nation faces and she focused specifically on cyber attacks. >> one of those of course is the threat of a major cyberattack. an attack that disables critical infrastructure, an

attack that impacts thousands if not millions of americans. indeed we saw with hurricane sandy what happens when a major piece of critical infrastructure like your electricity grid goes down for a prolonged period. and our cyber infrastructure, our cyber networks, are ripe for those types of attacks. >> reporter: janet napolitano by the way is a member of the council on foreign relations. this attack was apparently detected relatively quickly but, jon, it may underscore the vulnerability a lot of computer networks face in this country. jon: well, so the website is working and it was, as you say, it was discovered fairly early. how does it work? what did they do? what did they accomplish? >> reporter: you described this as a drive-by attack. the idea wasn't really so much to target the website so much as the people that use it. we talk about high-profile membership within the council on foreign relations.

you're talking about former presidents. even current defense and intelligence officials that mavis it this site on a regular basis the idea here for hackers was to kind of get into this website and then get into the systems of people that visited this website. so there was potentially a lot of pretty important information that may have been vulnerable too this kind of attack. jon: they're i will still investigating? >> apparently the fbi is still looking into this and so is the council to make sure this type of thing doesn't happen again. jon: doug luzader in washington. some scary stuff there. thank you, doug. >> reporter: thank you, jon. harris: new information against a soldier accused of killing 16 afghans. his attorney calls it totally irresponsible. the u.s. senate renewing its attention to renewing a controversial surveillance law. they spent hours on this yesterday. some people say it violates the rights of americans. we'll look at the pros and the cons.

stay with us.

harris: new information about the u.s. soldier accused of killing 16 afghan villagers in a predawn rampage. the u.s. army is now saying it will seek the death penalty against staff sergeant robert bales.

he faces premeditated murder and other charges in the attack on the villages that left 16 people dead among them women and children in southern afghanistan. that happened back in march. the attack drew such angry protests in the country the u.s. temporarily halted combat operations there. bales says attorney says his client should not serve the death penalty because he was serving the fourth deployment in a war zone. he is serving in fort lewis mccord in washington state. let's talk with a former prosecutor. >> thanks for having me. harris: let's start with what the defense team is saying. multiple deployments are a defense. why? >> they're saying because of multiple deployments there was post-traumatic stress many a disease many military people suffer from and is legitimate and we need more mental health services for soldiers facing multiple deployments and mental health issues. that is not in any way a

mitigating factor for the mass murder laelg alleged here where 16 people were murdered without provocation. harris: you're playing two roles for us today. you're prosecutor and defense of the you're also talking about a case that the prosecution which in this case is the united states, against sergeant bales has and in its case. tell me why you think it is solid or maybe not, what is might be missing? >> the allegations are here that he went to two different villages and opened fire on innocent people including multiple people and that 16 people were killed there is dna evidence linking him to the scene. he was seen coming back to the base with blood on him. there were eyewitness accounts. there is also statements he made that seem to be confessions. now the military law says that you have to look whether there is premeditation, which there seems to be here. whether there is aggravating circumstances such as mass murder or killing of children which there were. then you look whether there is mitigating factors which the defense is saying there is in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder which is very legitimate. we need more mental health services, excuse me, to help

people who are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder but however it is not in my opinion a mitigating factor when you deal with the murder of so many people. harris: you've given us the two sides of this case. if you need to take a quick drink ever water, go ahead. now i want to move onto something else. the u.s. military has not executed anyone since 1961. bales's case meets the requirements based on what you just said for the military to consider putting him to death. but you know, dan, so does another case. we're not seeing this kind of movement on that one. i'm talking about the fort hood shootings and accused mass killer, main jar nidal hasan. he killed 13 americans on the army base in texas. it has been 2 1/2 years. will we see the death penalty against him? better question, will we see any charges against him? >> certainly he is being prosecute and there are court proceedings going on. there was just an appeal decision whether he can have a beard during his trial. he will be prosecuted for murder. if there is ever going to be a case where someone should be prosecuted and the death

penalty is used this would certainly fit it. this is premeditated and calculated and you had multiple people killed. harris: we'll see what happens. they have a new judge and that will cause more delays. it is set to get going in february. we'll follow both cases with viewers. a quick topic change with you, dan. there is news breaking this morning. we're expecting a vote to come on the surveillance law in this country. it was put forth 1978. it has been renewed. they're looking to renew it again but there has been a lot of argument on the senate floor. what is the problem with this. >> there are a lot of legitimate concerns there is not a lot of oversight over fisa amendments which are able to look at foreigners who may be doing harm to the country with communications by americans are also viewed. e-mails, other communications and people legitimately feel that there should be more oversight. we should know how the fisa court works. we should know how many american communications are looked at by the government. people want amendments.

unfortunately congress once again is acting at the last minute trying to renew something about to expire and there is probably not the time to do revisions that are necessary. that's a problem here. harris: because critics want this to be revised as you just put it. the white house doesn't. it wants it to pass the way it is. a lot of people are in favor of it because it is helping to keep us safe since there is homegrown terror in the united states and we need to find it. i want to if which have the words put it up on the screen. kentucky senator rand paul had this to say on the senate floor yesterday. and what he was basically saying is that this interferes and disputes the power of the fourth amendment. and that it needs to be changed. again, dan, you say we may not see any changes to it because the deadline is tuesday? >> it is really important to note that even the supporters of renewing acknowledge there needs to be reform. there needs to be more oversight. we need to know more how the fisa court works. we want more protections for privacy rights but the supporters say there is not

enough time. the question is well why is congress waiting to the last minute at the end of the year to renew something that even the supporters admit needs to be revised? it's a problem we see in congress on many issues including the fiscal cliff where they wait until the last minute and say there is not enough time to do real reforms that are necessary here. harris: they did take time away from the fiscal cliff to debate this 4 1/2 hours yesterday. >> that's true. harris: so there is that. dan, thanks very much. >> thanks for having me. jon: so as we count down to those year-end tax hikes and spending cuts that will affect the lives of virtually every single american, why one key republican lawmaker says his party is not even trying to solve the fiscal cliff crisis and why he thinks that may be a good thing. interesting take coming up. plus, russian president vladmir putin, have you heard what he did? taking aim at americans who hope to adopt russian children. what's behind this controversial move? a live report next.

jon: right now syria's opposition leader is rejecting an invitation for peace talks as the violence escalates. the country's ally, russia, is inviting the leader of syria's opposition to visit moskow for the first time but that offer turned down. some interesting developments here. let's get them from leland vittert live in our mideast bureau. leland? >> reporter: jon, no one really views russia as an

honest broker here especially the rebels who for so long seen russia side with pat assad in this conflict. they don't really want to deal with the russians, hence turning down the invitation. the rebels now think time is on their side. the momentum is on the battlefield has shifted. for so long the rebels were outgunned and outmaneuvered. they hold major parts of northern part of the syria and major population centers in the center of the country that president assad up till now had control. one rebel fighter said we'll fight all the way to president assad's palace. the rebels don't see a reason to negotiate while president assad is in power. the while the offer from the russians may not be so significant is the fact they're making it is significant. russia has a very critical port along the syrian course along the mediterranean the port of tartuse. russia is trying very hard

to keep tear influence inside syria and may be trying to play both sides of the coin here. they want to keep assad so they have influence with him and to hedge their bet to gain as much influence with the syrian rebels so if the rebels win they get to keep the port which is their only naval port outside the russian federation. going forward this turned into a little bit of a proxy war. a number about weapons the rebels are getting especially coming from outside powers. obviously president assad has been resupplied by iran and russia. rebels being supplied by saudi arabia, qatar and also turkey so that both side here have little interest in a peace deal. more interestingly both sides, the saudis and the iranians, have an interest in trying to see this go on as long as possible and an interest seeing their side win inside syria. they're willing, more than happy in fact, to supply money and weapons as long as the syrians are willing to continue to keep killing each other. you look at this long term,

many people think this will be a very long sectarian civil war. we're talking a time frame of years. right now, jon, the death toll is about 45,000. a lot of people are saying that number could easily double in the coming months and years as this violence continues, jon. jon: the refugees keep streaming out of that war-torn country. leland vittert in jerusalem for us. leland, thank you. harris: new information from russia today where president vladmir putin has signed that bill banning americans from adopting russian children. we saw this coming and now it has happened. the bill angering americans and russians who say it victimizes the children just to make a political point. amy kellogg is live for us in london with more. amy, why have they passed this law? >> reporter: well, harris, the law is named after dima yakovlev, a toddler who died in the custody of his adoptive american parents a few years ago in the washington, d.c. area. he was left in a car in the heat but basically, it does appear that this law was actually a reaction to a law

passed in the united states. it puts travel bans, visa bans and asset freezes on 60 russians that the u.s. congress believes were in some way involved or complicit in the death of sergei magnitsky in 2009. he was a lawyer who had been working with an american firm in russia investigating a major fraud. the company believes that $230 million it had paid in taxes to russia had ultimately been stolen by a group of russians who were linked to the government. so, again, this appears to be a tit-for-tat though it's in the name of a child who died in u.s. custody but it is a very big deal. harris, of course, because americans are the most enthusiastic adopters of russian children around the world. it goes into effect january 1st, harris. harris: we have pending cases. amy, before i let you go, what are the repercussions of this? >> reporter: yes. you know, this bill passed

very readily in the duma, which is the parliament but have have been voices of opposition in russia as high up as the foreign minister saying this is really shooting ourselves in the foot. children are the victims of this political game. there are dozens of russian children right now, harris, who are supposed to be moving to the united states into homes where parents are waiting for them. many in cases these parents have traveled numerous times to russia. they have bonded with these children. and some of these children, in fact, most of them, have been rejected by other russian families. some have some health conditions. so it's a very restrictive process to begin with. the parents who are waiting have made the grade but they do not know what is going to happen as this law goes into effect tuesday. u.s. officials are saying that they are doing everything they can to work with the russian authorities to see to it that these cases are stuck to, that these children can come to america. after that the law will go into effect but it is really all in the balance right

now. it is very emotional time for these families who are waiting for kids. harris: i toggle between anger and tears as you're describing this, amy. thank you very much. let's now be joined on the phone for more on this but lauren kotch. director at national council for adoption. lauren are you with us. >> thank you, harris absolutely for having me. harris: our colleague, am amy kellogg laid this out for us. what are the conditions in russia for those orphans? >> like many or fannages around the world this is not the place for children who really need to thrive in loving you can permanent families. an orphannage is a place where children do not get a lot of touch. they don't get the emotional or mental support that children desperately need at a young age. really the best place for these children is in a loving permanent family. as amy said, there are

families in america ready and willing to bring the children to homes. this is the release day foreigner country adoption but more importantly for the children dreaming and hoping for a family. harris: for people who watch this and may not know what happens. they match the parents with a child. you do get to travel back and forth. some of the parents bonded. there are 46 cases we know of that are active. lauren, what happens? how do you counsel the parents at this point? >> all i can say, harris, it must feel like losing a member of your family already. like you said, these families have traveled once, in many cases twice to meet their children, who they consider to be part of their family at this time. it must feel like a heartbreak and really the loss of a family member. harris: the money that has been spent too. i'm curious, you're an expert what happens now with these families. you have to tell them you can't have your child but this is an expensive process. many thousands of dollars

already put into the point by the time you travel. >> that's correct, harris. in many cases these parents have spent upwards of $60,000. they're, financially invested in this process. more importantly, they're emotionally invested in this process and i just can't help but wonder what is the state of these little children who have been told that their mommies and daddies are on the way to pick them up? honestly begins to bring me to tears just now as i'm talking about it. it is really heartbreaking. harris: lauren, looking ahead now, your national adoption council works with different agencies across the country. how many agencies does this affect? >> it affects numerous agencies all across the country. as you said there are 46 families right now have been matched with a child that we know of in russia. we estimate there could be as many as 1500 families somewhere along the process. this is, just a really tough day and these agencies have a big job ahead of them counseling their families and directing them, working with the state department to

find out what the next steps are going to be. harris: i read where family's churches helped them raise money to try to, you mentioned that big price tag, to try to bring these children back to a safe country. boy, you just pray for them today. lauren koch. thanks for being with us from the national adoption council. >> thank you so much. thanks for bringing attention to these sweet little children who just need a family. harris: absolutely. >> thank you. jon: well, right now as the clock winds down toward the fiscal cliff deadline and looming tax hikes and spending cuts, that will impact nearly every single american we are just hours away from a crucial white house meeting of the president obama and leaders from the house and senate will sit down for their first face-to-face since november! but what can they hope to accomplish with so little time left, and at this point do they even want to come up with a solution? joining us oklahoma congressman james langford, incoming chairman of republican policy committee and serves on the house

oversight and budget committees. congressman, are we going over the cliff? >> well we certainly hope so, hope not actually, but trying to get this resolved. the house as you know full well passed all of our sequestration documents in may. passed all of our tax documents in august and we have waited for the senate all this time and for the president frankly all this time. frustrating for the house did all our work early and be at the point we never hoped to be at. jon: when senate majority leader harry reid says speaker boehner, leader of the house of representatives is acting like a dictator, how would you respond to that? >> that seems interesting for a person that is actually brought 70 different bills out, that prevented them from going to committee. brought them straight to the senate floor. the way the senate has operated right now or has not operated would show a real difference in the senate. that is one of those issues where i would say the pot is calling the kettle black in that process because the way the senate is nonfunctional right now,ven bringing bills up, not bringing them

through committee is incredibly frustrating to those of us in the house that doing the work that has to be done. if the senate wants a resolution the senate has to pass something on this. we have done our work in the house. the senate has to respond. jon: as you know harry reid blames the minority party in the senate, the republicans for blocking legislation that he wants to bring forward. >> yeah. i'm very aware but the senate doesn't even bring it through committee. that is a nice talking point from the senate but they have the power to be able to bring things through committee if they want to struggle this through. it is a different process in the senate where both parties have to work together to be able to bring this out. not just a sipping bell father -- single party issue. harry reid is trying to make the senate run like the house and the senate needs to run like the senate. jon: referring to your fellow republicans in the house you had an interesting quote i want to read back to you and get a full explanation on it. you say, we, republican are not trying to solve the fiscal cliff. we're trying to solve the debt and deficit. can you explain that?

>> sure can. yeah, the white house has been very focused on what do we have to do to just get past the fiscal cliff. let's get over this bump and keep spend and keep going. in the house we're actually trying to solve the debt and deficit. let me illustrate this. we have a trillion dollars in deficit spending last four years. president says let's go back to the clinton levels of taxation. if we went back to the clinton levels of taxation we're still double the highest bush era of deficit spending still because spending was accelerated so much in 2009 and 2010. we're trying to bring the spending levels back down. on the contrary if we just brought the spending levels down to the clinton level spending instead of tax level going up to clinton level of tax it is would solve this. we're trying to solve the debt and deficit. we're trying to say how do we get out of debt. the president is saying let's get past the fiscal cliff and let's keep moving on. that doesn't solve the problem. what solves the problem is reducing spending and get our spending back down so

our nation is back in balance again. jon: is it mostly medicare and perhaps social security that are the drivers of the problem in your view? >> it is everything that's on the table. when you look at our discretionary spending, how much that was accelerated through the one-year stimulus program to be done in 2009. everyone remembers that was just going to be a 1-year anomaly in 2009. to have spending go up and come back down again. the problem is, it didn't. it was permanently locked in. we do have issues with all our entitlements. we have interest with how much interest we're paying. people lose track we're paying $220 billion a year in interest payments that is just out the window. we're going to have this kind of struggle. quite frankly this is no different than a marriage a lot of marriages fail because they fight over money. they get heavily in debt and fight over money issues. we in the nation are fighting over money because we're so heavily in debt. we see two different parties. one says we should spend a lot more money. that will get us out of debt and help our economy. another one that is my party,

that says we're spending way too much. we can not continue do this. we have to get back in balance. until we resolve this we'll continue this argument. jon: if we go over the fiscal cliff how is your republican position trendented? >> it is not. it doesn't help anyone. the perception if we go every the fiscal cliff we'll get things resolved and go on from that. that is not true. alternative minimum tax hurts tremendous number of americans. it increases taxes for everyone. it creates tremendous instability in our economy that doesn't need it. this needs to be resolved but needs to be resolved in a way that actually fixes the problem, not just postpones the fiscal cliff for another six months or another year. that doesn't resolve it. so our push us, why we tried to get this done in may of this year, rather than in december, is to say, we need to fix the problem. let's focus on that. jon: james langford is a republican from oklahoma. now our viewers no why

you're on the republican policy committee today. good of you to join us. >> thank you. harris: we know this from the headlines. the cdc has had a rather busy year keeping us all safe. we'll look infections, diseases viral outbreaks, remember west nile this summer? put the centers for disease control in the news over the past year. if your mom told you not to climb trees she needed to say it louder to this buy. look at this. an update on the man who had to be rescued after guesting three store i ares up a massive palm tree. how do you even climb a palm tree? jon: very carefully. harris: very carefully. great. aww man. [ male announcer ] returns are easy with free pickup from the u.s. postal service. we'll even drop off boxes if you need them. visit usps.com pay, print, and have it picked up for free. any time of year. ♪ nice sweater.

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thank you. to the best vacation sp(all) the gulf! it doesn't matter which of our great states folks visit. mississippi, alabam louisiana or florida, they're gonna love it. shaul, your alabama hospitality is incredible. thanks, karen. love your mississippi outdoors. i vote for your florida beaches, dawn. bill, this louisiana seafood is delicious. we're having such a great year on the gulf, we've decided to put aside our rivalry. now is the perfect time to visit anyone of our states. the beaches and waters couldn't be more beautiful. take a boat ride, go fishing or just lay in the sun. we've got coastline to explore and wildlife to photograph. and there's world class dining with our world famous seafood. so for a great vacation this year, come to the gulf. its all fabulous but i give florida the edge. right after mississippi. you mean alabama. say louisiana or there's no dessert.

this invitation is brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. harris: well, we love a good rescue. this one's kind of different though. warm climate. a tree trimmer, getting stuck in a massive palm tree in california after suffering some kind of a sudden back pain while dangling three stories up. the trimmer was apparently hit by several palm fronds before realizing he was in trouble. really? eventually had to be taken out of that tree. as you see guys on the rooftop precariously pulling him onto a ladder. he was taken to a hospital to be examined, his head examined why he was hanging there. jon: just part of the job. harris: i guess. jon: no short of disturbing headlines this year. amidst the fiscal cliffs and freak storms that reshaped parts of the u.s. landscape a lot of stories came out of the center for disease control including a range of

infectious diseases outbreaks and more. elizabeth prann is live in our atlanta newsroom. we hope she has been wearing her surgical mask, elizabeth? >> reporter: i have. i've been washing my hands regularly which the cdc tells you to do. it has been a busy year. you remember west nile and fungal meningitis outbreak. cdc was certainly making headlines in 20 12th. >> it has been a busy year for the cdc. >> reporter: he leads the agency that investigates and solves some of the world's biggest medical mysteries. in 2012 a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak traced to contaminated steroid injections killed dozens of patients and caused serious illnesses in others. >> we worked with health department in 23 states to help them notify 14 how people exposed to the contaminated product. >> reporter: the steroid used to treat joint and back pain was produced by the compounding pharmacy in massachusetts called necc.

>> compounding is certainly necessary if done safely and in accordance with good manufacturing practices. >> reporter: 201212 was the highest number of mosquito born west nile virus cases. >> we had 200 deaths from west nile virus this year. >> reporter: several states experienced food recalls from peanut butter to cantaloupe. >> at any one time at cdc we're looking at 30 or 40 possible foodborne outbreaks. >> reporter: in each outbreak the cdc works to rapidly identify the contaminated product and get it off the market. >> i use --. >> reporter: the center also launched its first national advertising campaign against tobacco use with graphic portrayals of real people suffering serious smoking-related illnesses. >> very simply, that is the number one leading preventable cause of death. >> reporter: and jon, 2013 may be another busy year because according to the cdc the recent flu outbreak is the earliest they have seen in nearly a decade.

so when i say wash your hands, you may want it do that as well. back to you. jon: and i got my flu shot. so far, so far so good. >> reporter: so you're safe. everyone needs to get a flu shot. jon: i hope. elizabeth prann in atlanta. thank you. >> reporter: thanks. harris: holidays mean fun times with friends and family. also the start of cold and flu season as jon and elizabeth were just talking about. some more ways now that you can stay healthy this winter. the doctor is in. i'm going to wash my hands. stay here. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. your soups are so awesomely delicious my husband and i can't stop eating 'em! what's...that... on your head? can curlers! tomato basil, potato with bacon... we've got a lot of empty cans. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

harris: well, 'tis the season to get a cold and with so many over-the-counter and home remedies out there how do you choose? jon: i don't know. which is better? mom's chicken soup or maybe heavy-duty prescription medication? harris: dr. lee vinokur is an adjunct professor at lsu shreveport and a board certified e.r. physician. i would imagine you've seen whatever it is people cough up when they come in. let's start off with a couple of myths. researchers say chicken soup actually works to stave off the flu and boost our immune system. true or false? >> there are several studies on both sides. certainly it will make you feel better but there has

been some talk there could be antioxidants in it that can help boost your immune system. depends what your mom's recipe is. harris: vitamin c? >> vitamin c, there is never really been significant studies. and if you take a lot of it is water soluable vitamin. you will just peit out anyway if you take too much. vitamin-d, studies have show, people deficient in vitamin-d tend to get more respiratory infections. don't overdo it. won't hurt to drink juice if you're sick or take vitamin-d and get it through food. harris: that would be interesting, people in colder climates because they're not getting as much sun. >> right. jon: when you have a cold, how do you know you are infectious? what about going to work and spreading your cold around everybody in the office? >> while you're coughing and sneezing, touching everything, you do have the

potential to spread a cold. with the flu sometimes it is harder to tell. the cold kind of comes on slowly with a sore throat and you're feeling bad. the best way to tell the difference between a cold and flu i tell patients if you have symptoms from the neck up, sneezing, coughing, sore throat, that is definitely more cold. symptoms from the neck down, body aches, fever, tired, feeling miserable, that is usually the flu. harris: i want to turn quickly just to small children. as jon is saying when you have symptoms yourself you know how you're feeling but a little child can't always tell you. how can you tell by looking at your child, yeah, it is time to go to the doctor? >> i mean children look, they get very high fevers. they usually can tolerate that a little better than adults but if your child isn't eating or drinking and they're laying around, you can try to give them if avenue a fever some anti-fever medicine to see how they do. if they perk right up, usually could be just a cold.

sniffles, colds, things like that are very common with kids. they spread germs. they're like little germ factories. they go to school, they touch everything, eat, touch their face. that is very common during flu season. you can do it up to six months and above kids can get a flu shot. jon: head's up it is probably a cold from the neck down, it is probably the flu? >> right. jon: all right. i'll remember that. that is good to know. harris: dr. vinokur. thank you. >> my pleasure. jon: there is growing concern whether north korea could be testing a nuclear weapon. remember that missile launch. what a new satellite image shows that has washington on edge

jon: right now, protecting our kids in schools by arming and training teachers and other school officials after the sandy hook tragedy. we will talk to one attorney general that proposes an armed person in every school. another shocking case of someone pushing a new york city subway rider to his death. police say that this man shoved another man in front of an oncoming train. they want your help to capture the criminal. and do remember uncertain under

an norman schwarzkopf. all those stories and more happening on "happening now." jon: welcome to a brand-new power of "happening now." harris: i am harris faulkner filling in for generally. everyone is calling president obama responsible for this meeting. chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel is live on capitol hill. what where republican leaders saying about today's meeting? reporter: republicans in office do not control the white house. they need to cooperate and to actually support a final plan in the senate.

so they are pushing to see what the president will offer at this meeting. a leading senate republican sounded pretty skeptical about this meeting. >> anytime you nonsedating public publicly in washington, it is usually for political theater purposes. my bet is that it's all political theater. jon: republicans have made the point that it is time for the senate to act. they are also anxious to see what the president has to offer. obviously, we are waiting to see whether there will be enough republican support for whatever is offered to get us a bill through the house and senate. harris: what is happening on the democratic side? reporter: they are frustrated. they wanted that house republicans to return a lot sooner to work on a fiscal cliff deal. we know that it will not return until sunday, the house, here is democrat chris van hollen from

maryland. reporter: this is not a show. the last ditch effort to bring congressional leaders together to try to get at least a small package ordeal together before the new year. in order to avoid some of the tax hurts of the fiscal cliff and unemployment. reporter: while there are discussions about a final fiscal cliff deal, there is finger-pointing going on. the blame game, if you will, if everything falls apart and the u.s. economy goes over the fiscal cliff. harris: i have to tell you that wall street is starting to react for a fifth day of losses on wall street. stocks are reacting, it is the final friday before the fiscal cliff. the dow is a 55-point drop, but it has been lower at that. it is still early in the trading day yet. the forecast for today is not

looking good. a fifth day of concern there among investors on wall street. jon: flirting with out 13,000 barrier. part of the looming fiscal cliff includes a castilian dollars in custom military spending. it is called sequestration. many military experts are concerned about the impact of sudden spending cuts and how it could impact national security. molly henneberg has more on that this morning live from washington. reporter: the cost will be big. the cuts will be large. if we go over that fiscal cliff, that triggers fears of automatic spending cuts, and we are just looking at the defense piece today. the pentagon will face a cut of $492 billion. that is about a half trillion dollars over nine years. that works out to about a 55 billion-dollar cut per year, starting next year, 2013. defense analysts say this on top

of hundreds of additional cuts already in place for defense will be devastating to the military. >> it is going to affect the operational force that is its livelihood to get it equipment and not just the force in afghanistan that is being reduced. it would impact the training as well. reporter: there is a large defense industry will also be hit. private companies may not get government contracts to keep them in business. >> severe budget cuts could literally put national security at risk if the companies that make the f-35 fighter jet or nuclear submarines or artillery pieces don't have the money and have to lay off work force and close facilities.

reporter: jim moran said his district, right outside of washington, home to many who work in the defense industry, could be harvested in the country. he is warning constituents that they can expect an immediate 8 billion-dollar cut in defense money if we go over the fiscal cliff. that, he says, will likely lead to job losses. jon? jon: that is very scary stuff. molly henneberg, thank you. harris: the nation is mourning the loss of norman schwarzkopf. he was 78 years old. the man known as storming norman drove out saddam hussein's forces in kuwait in 1991. operation desert storm entered one of our history books. you know, i have read that you

say that the general earned every bit of his impeccable reputation as a leader. why is that? >> well, if you look back at where we were when he played a critical role in leading the first gulf war, we had come off of the 70s, which were the carter years, morale is really bad. reagan rebuilt the military during the 80s. then george h. w. bush took over as well. the team that was rebuilt, that new army and air force, the new navy thinking about was actually put to the test in desert storm. it was norman schwarzkopf who was chosen to lead that because of his position as being a commander in chief and central command at the time. what he showed with several things. first, he not only highlighted the technology improvements with his almost daily briefings, which that is where he got the nickname the bear. his nickname among the staff was storming norman for a reason.

his nickname with the public was the bear. he was affable, but you could tell that the iron fist in a velvet glove guy who explained what was going on to the american people. he used precision weapons, videotapes, and a mission to convey that to the people. he was not only leading combat forces, but he was also explaining to the american people what his troops were doing and how they were doing it. it was a revelation for the american people to actually see this. there were some lessons learned from now. quite frankly, i think the american people may have gotten a little too much that the the technology was all magic. but the one thing that norman schwarzkopf made sure of is that the way he advertised his troops and people, it was a turning point for the nation. the goal for what the gulf war

veterans were welcome back, it was a turning point for the nation as well. harris: very interesting in the way that you describe it. i remember the media will look forward to his daily briefings. it was a tutorial on how to report the news coming out of that part of the world. let's move on from that, and of course, the nation will continue to remember general schwarzkopf today. but we have some things that are making headlines. before you get it in, is a saltpeter? >> no, they are trying to keep the united states on track to lead in 2013. these are the same people who burn down schools, those who would shoot people that dare teach women. these are nasty people. all they are trying to do is get the heat off long enough so that they can come back in power and

funds that country further back into medieval times. they are not negotiating in good faith. harris: talk to me about the taliban. afghanistan versus pakistan. and our relationship with that terror group. >> first off, this is all happening in the northwest province of pakistan. the border area on the afghan side. but the bottom line is -- they call themselves a religious organization. all they are doing is using religion as a false front. this is a criminal organization. they make their money by smuggling and kidnapping and through intimidation.

there our family names of gangs. they have no real political motives that are good for any country. let alone a country so suffering is afghanistan. these people should not be allowed back to the government. but i am afraid because of the weak position that we have and the karzai government, everyone is saying that we need a political settlement. most wars, all wars end with completely defeated enemies or a negotiated position. in this case, it's going to be a negotiated position because we cannot defeat it. we just don't have the forces nor the political will to do so. harris: captain nash, thank you for your perspective today. >> my pleasure. jon: new york city is the safest big city in america. fewer workers per population than any other big town. the murder strikes again here is a man is pushed to his death in front of a subway train for the

second time this month. the search is now on for his killer. harris: also, huge development in a looming strike that is getting the attention of the white house. the latest on the high-stakes showdown coming up next. jon: still to come, reading writing and firearms. should teachers and staff have guns at school? one attorney general says yes. we will have more coming up next i think that criminals are targets

harris: for the second time this month, new york city police are looking for someone who pushed this man to his death in front of a new york city subway train. this happened in queens, new york. it shows the female suspect running from the subway station.

she was following the victim closely and have been talking to herself just before she pushed him onto the tracks. >> it's the last stop on the train. people asked what happened. and the conductor was like, i don't know what happened. jon: this comes just weeks after another man was pushed onto the subway tracks in front of a train as it was approaching. police have charged a homeless man with murder in that case. right now, breaking news on a labor fight that threatened a big blow to the u.s. economy. on the east and gulf coast, it avert a strike that could have shut down every major port from texas to massachusetts. phil keating is live in miami with the latest on this news.

reporter: the bottom line is strike averted. this weekend, however, this deal remains not 100% smooth out mutually agreed-upon agreement. both sides agreeing for a 30 day extension to continue to work on the details of their contract negotiating. not at this point sharing any details as to how exactly they averted this. as to how they smoothed out that key sticking point over those container royalty fees. fifteen grand per year per worker is what figures out too. stack after stack, row after all would have gone nowhere of these cars. the container royalty payment

issue has been agreed upon in principle by the party. thirty more days work everything out. in new jersey, florida, and across the gulf coast. jamming the nations supply chain. airline parts, tiles, you name it. raising prices for all of us. causing layoffs and income loss to all of the workers involved in for president obama who had been asked by the national retail federation to enact the act, had longshoremen declared a strike. well, this, at least for now,

stopping this potential strike that is causing havoc on the economy. that would of course have alienated one of the strongest supporters this past year's election. jon: and maybe they ought to take this negotiating team and sent him to washington. >> the container clip averted, the fiscal cliff is hopefully going to be averted. harris: getting down to the wire, why neither side wants a compromise of what you think. we will have a fair and balanced debate. plus, braving the elements and racing to the rescue. an amazing effort to save a man's best friend. with the spark cash card from capital one,

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harris: north korea could be testing a nuclear weapon. that is the concern of this

hour. a brand-new satellite image coming into in to us now. schilling repair work after flooding a nuclear test facility. this has washington and others bracing for the possibility of an atomic launch by the north. david pifer is from bangkok with life coverage. reporter: it suggests increased activity at that nuclear test site. as he said from the experts are saying that they have been working on this and flood damage at the site. but the pictures show that there is still water streaming out of one of the thomas baer, and that could affect a test, because it could affect the ability to see how strong any glasses. the work being done at the site that can be seen in these photos indicate that they are at least maintaining a state of readiness. so if they are given the go-ahead by carmack, they will be ready.

analysts say it is difficult. many of these tests have been deep down within the mountain. back in 2006 and 2009, after conducting a long-range missile tests, they went through one of their atomic explosions. they also successfully launched a long-range missile. we are waiting for a u.n. response, which is likely to include sanctions against north korea. pyongyang says it's part of its space program. but the u.s. and its allies say it was an intercontinental missile tests, which is being

banned by the u.n. now, after analyzing the first stage of the rocket they recover, south korea's defense ministry has warned that the technology involved shows that north korea already has the capability to fire a missile that could reach america's west coast. experts say it could be years before pyongyang is able to on such a missile with a nuclear warhead. but the concern is that if north korea conducts another nuclear test, you can learn more about how to miniaturized technology. which is a key step in building a nuclear weapons program. the missile comes as young north korea leader kim three seems to can consolidate his power. we are waiting to see if this

affects china and their soup harris: you mentioned the evidence that south korea has found that the north will be able to fire at us, at our mainland, possibly come in the next two years. is there anything the south is doing at this point? people are feeling imminent danger. >> the south issued that warning about the capability about the missile tests. there is concern about the region, but it is very difficult to stop anything like that. we have some kind of missile patriots in different types of missiles to try to stop that. but it is very difficult if you have a three stage rocket to be able to bring that down very

easily. but we did see before that last test that south korea and japanese and american forces were put on alert. perhaps bring you down and casey came came into their territory. back to you. harris: david pifer reporting live today from bangkok. jon: the fiscal cliff is a sport is a way. looking beyond the deadline, short-term battle will have a long-term political impact. let's talk about it with a four-man chairman of the republican party of virginia and the author of divider in chief. margie o'mara is president of momentum analysis. welcome. margie, let me read you a headline according to one of the political websites. it said that democrats are best positioned if we go over the fiscal cliff. do you agree with that? >> well, i think the american

people lose in the middle class loses if we go over the fiscal cliff and we talk about an average 2000-dollar tax increase for most americans. but polls show that voters overwhelmingly feel that republicans are to blame if we go over the fiscal cliff. over time, we have seen president obama's ratings on how he's handling the prices actually improving. republicans, how they are handling it is worsening. by and large, consistently -- whether it's how people view how the parties are acting in whether or not they want people to collaborate or work together, the party that is seen as coming to the table to negotiate is going to benefit. the party that is being obstinate will suffer. jon: kate, do you agree with the analysis? the gallup poll does show that president obama is in the mid-50s when it comes to his polling ratings on how he's handling the fiscal cliff. republicans in congress are in the mid-20s. >> that's right, there's no question about that, tremont.

obama has done a much better job of positioning himself to take advantage of the fiscal cliff. he has painted republicans is only caring about their millionaire and billionaire friends. taking hostage the people of america. you have steny hoyer saying that republicans want to take children hostage and threatened to shoot them. this is vilifying republicans and it has been incredibly effective. in the short term, absolutely, the president is set to take advantage of this. tax increases, massive tax reductions to the military. republicans really stand and the notion is appalling about who wins, but the republicans win because the economy is going to go out yet another fiscal cliff. george w. bush is not the president.

obama is the president, he is not putting forth proposals to work with republicans. he will have to take ownership of this. they need to come up with a cohesive message about real economic growth and shrinking the size of government. they don't have a message and that is going to be the big question about who wins and long-run. jon: if we go over the cliff, i mean, everyone's paycheck, just about -- come january 1, it will be shrunk because government is going to be taking a much bigger chunk out of it. that will infuriate people. are they going to be blaming president obama? >> well, they won't be blaming president obama because polls show that they are blaming republicans. republicans are not really coming to the table. we had an election, and we had an election where voters clearly supported the president. jon: he got 50.96% of the population. >> he got over 300 electoral votes. romney only have one battleground state. tons of senate victories, again

in the house, there were gains. voters agree with the handling of the economy presently and the proposals that the president has a point. it has to the one spending cuts and republicans try to pass a plan of their own, but it failed. bill kristol has criticized the plan. those are not my words, republicans have criticized that now republicans are really standing in the way of the real deal in order to defend the very top. >> republicans have a mandate as well. they were elected in the majority in the house of representatives, and their mandate is to maintain a grip on the size of government. instead of letting the president and the democrats go towards

greed and bankruptcy and insolvency. they have a mandate. if they go along with raising taxes on the job creators in america, they can plan to be wiped out in the midterm election. they know that. they know the mandate is. if we can keep looking at the schools, the 50% approval rating of the president right now, these polls will not remain stagnant. the economy will suffer dramatically. we are going to have higher unemployment. we are going to have higher national debt. that is going to have an impact on the american people. it is the republicans thatneed to be in a position of holding the line, looking out for the middle class and the working, hard-working americans and the job creators. if they are able to do that, then hopefully there will be this reevaluation and embrace us stimulating the private sector and the free market and taking us dramatically in a different path, rather than obama's massive expansion of government as the only means to stimulate the economy. jon: thank you both from each

side, what is left of the fiscal cliff. harris: protecting children in schools after the tragedy in newtown, connecticut, some teachers are wanting to have guns in school. one attorney general says yes. he is standing by to talk with us next. also, the latest on george w. bush and his condition. the 41st president and why report yeah. mm. some laxatives like dulcolax can cause cramps. but phillips' caplets don't. they have magnesium. for effective relief of occasional constipation. thanks. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'.

jon: there is growing support for the federal government to sell off billions of dollars worth of its property to help pay down our ballooning national debt. unused buildings, land and other assets could fetch billions, perhaps even trillions on the open market. what do you think of that idea? william la jeunesse live in los angeles with more on this. william? >> reporter: well, jon, why not have a massive garage sale? that is what families do when they need money. in fact the tax foundation called selling unused assets and empty buildings one of the least worst options for raising cash. from state-owned businesses like amtrak, to vacant buildings like these in california, is it time for the federal government to sell what it doesn't need? so instead of raise taxes which takes money out of the economy rand lowers economic activity, we ought to be looking at selling federal assets. >> reporter: like the empty va hospital in los angeles

for 5 billion? or parts of this former waterfront military base in san francisco. in both cases politicians said no. >> congressman representing his district. a senator representing his or her state. they want to make sure they're taken care of. sometimes that may get in the way of what is best for the nays. >> reporter: the federal government is also america's biggest landlord, selling 20% of its empty or underperforming buildings would save $2 billion. >> you go through your garage. you clear it out and the government is no different. the scale, just a matter of scale. >> reporter: the feds also refuse to sell valuable public landed a adjacent to fast-growing cities and let mining companies take billions in gold and silver for free, without charging royalties like we do for oil and natural gas. selling amtrak could net 60 billion. two taxpayer-owned utility, the tennessee valley authority, and bonneville power, would bring in even more. a commission could oversee the sale to overcome

partisan opposition. >> the commission could look at all of the federal assets, decides which were the most valuable which could be sold to the least loss to common good. >> reporter: now the federal government already owns about 28% of all the land in the u.s. about 500 billion in mineral rights we give away. we have trillions in oil reserves, jon, we refuse to pump. yes, a yard sale could help bring down the national debt. but reuse, recycle, resell, are not words you hear on capitol hill. jon: that doesn't seem to happen very often. william la jeunesse in los angeles for us. thank you. harris: a new proposal to keep our kids safe is getting a lot of attention. the attorney general of arizona wants to allow one staff member in every school in his state to carry a gun. across the nation protect children as you know has taken on new urgency in the wake of the sandy hook shooting in newtown, connecticut. in utah, for example, the state is providing 200

teachers six hours of training in handling concealed weapons. this teacher says she is all for it. >> it is important because if we have the legal opportunity to change the situation and we're trained, i think we should be able to do it. and it is legal in utah, for teachers to carry. so, actually just bought a holster and a vest. a lot of information. nobody can see it and students wouldn't know. it stays on me all day. harris: that is utah. let's go back to arizona. republican tom horn is there. he is the attorney general in that state. thank you for joining us. you want either a school principal or somebody else in every learning facility to be trained and armed. how close are you to making this a reality in your state? >> i made the proposal. we're offering to provide free training. i have 36 investigators who are sworn police officers and sheriffs are participating. three sheriffs agreed to participate. i expect more to do that we'll need a bill to get

through the legislature to, to authorize a teacher or a principal or a principal's designee to have a gun at school. right now no one can have guns at schools except policemen or retired policemen. so if that can pass with an emergency measure and take a effect right away we could do it right away. otherwise it would be 90 days after the session end which would be sometime this summer. harris: as you know this issue is being debated across the country, people are pretty emotional fired up, either up or down about this issue. what are you prepared to tell parents who show up on your office doorstep pleading for there not to be armed administrators in schools? >> i think some parents have been concerned because the proposal has been made to let teachers in general bring guns to school. and i share that concern. i think that could create more danger than it avoids. when teachers confiscate cell phones, sometimes they put them in a locked drawer and kids can still get at them. if teachers in general brought guns to school, kids could get their hands on

them. it could create more danger than it avoids. earned the other extreme would be to do nothing. if we do nothing if another incident like newtown occurred, we could regret not doing anything. middle ground that would improve the situation, having highly trained person in every school and yet not, not do something that might cause more problems than it would solve. harris: so there's also the law enforcement aspect of this just a little while ago this came into your newsroom that sheriff joe arpaio, maricopa county is weighing in. across the nation he is known for being tough on u.s.-mexico border policy. he is announcing plans today to deployed an armed volunteer posse to protect students in the wake of sandy hook shooting. will that be part of your program? >> well i hope to work together with sheriff arpaio. three other sheriffs already said they would work with me. i expect others to join as well. sheriff arpaio's proposal is

not have them in the schools but have them on the periphery of the schools. and unless they're retired police officers under current law they couldn't be in the schools. if the law changes then, they could be in the schools. and i have always been in favor of police officers being in the schools. we had a program of police officers. they are called school resour officers, or sros in a small percentage of our schools. they do a lot of good. not only are they there for emergencies but they teach some courses. they become friendly with the kids. the kids learn they can confide in them. they're not the enemy. the problem was budgeting. we had a in small persianage of schools. the legislature had to cut back even on that because of decline in revenues during the recession. if we could afford to have a police officer, what we call a school resource officer, s. ro in every school, that would be the very best solution. what i'm propose something a kind of a second best solution understanding that the legislature probably can not fund a police officer in every school. harris: that is interesting. some of this comes down to

money too. you know a lot of this has come down to politics across the country. people say if you're in one camp you're in the party. if you're in the other camp you're in this party. people should know this idea is not politically swayed one way or the other. when president clinton was in office he was reportedly considering this. my question, why hasn't this happened up until now? you talk about money and budget issues but having someone in a school like resource officer or armed and trained teacher? >> i think the experience of newtown has really shook us up and, it has upset all of us and we want to be sure it never happens again. we want to be sure we do everything we can to make sure it doesn't happen again. i'm avoiding both extreme camps. i'm not in favor of teachers in general taking guns to school. i think that could create problems. i am in not in favor of doing nothing. we would regret doing nothing if another newtown happens. it helps solve the problem without creating new problems. harris: wow! we'll send you

to washington if you're good at doing that. attorney general tom horne, thank you for joining us from arizona. >> thanks for having me. jon: let's get a quick check on the markets. the dow is not too happy with all of this fiscal cliff stuff. stocks trading lower as investors lose confidence in washington's ability to reach a deal. on fiscal cliff. you can see the dow is down about 60 points right now. hovering just above the 13,000 mark. well risking life and limb to save a man and a dog from an icy lake. plus a look at the top stories of the year involving news media. those stories just ahead.

jon: well, another big year for news with some major headlines involving the news media. let's talk about the big stories of this year just ending. christie setzer is president of new heights communication. she was spokesperson for vermont governor howard dean. cal thomas a syndicated columnist and fox news contributor. cal, start with you. when it cops to media mistakes, missteps, whatever, what's the big story of the year now ending? >> oh, golly there were so many, jon. during the republican presidential primaries you saw newt gingrich taking on the host of that debate. republicans never lose when they take on the media. but i think what republicans ought to do, the next time around is not to fall into this template that allows

these liberal hosts to question them, often from a negative and liberal perspective and start demanding they have at least one conservative on a panel. i would like to see a panel, for example, with at least one conservative like a rush limbaugh, sean hannity, mark levine to even things out a little bit and challenge the democrat in the general election in ways that they don't. we had other stories that were big media stories in 2012. you remember the unfortunate shooting in aurora, colorado, where abc's brian ross, went on the air and looked up in the phone book and found a name that matched the alleged shooter and concluded, gee, he must be part of the tea party. this is the kind of stuff that passes for sober analysis with the mainstream media. there are many others but those two stand out in my mind immediately. jon: christie, your favorites of the year? >> well it is not a surprise i disagree with cal on this one. look, i think the biggest media failure of is the year is failure to report the extreme lurch to the right of the republican party, a

party that had gone from being conservative opposition party to one that is more about the transvageal ultrasound, banning of contraception and one that stopped trying to problem solve and now more interested in obstruction. i think that is because the media is interested portraying this false equivalence between the parties, hey they're all bad, they're all kind of the same and that is not something that really serves american voters typically well. jon: one might also, cal, suppose talk about the extreme left ward lurch of the democratic party. >> i with say that a false equivalence. >> the republicans will seem more conservative because the liberals want to provide free contraception to everybody, abortion on demand and you know, run us off the fiscal cliff. >> that is not true. >> with a $16 trillion debt. there are plenty of the stories in the media. here is the major point, jon. the mainstream media look through all of this through their left-wing template. for example, one of the --

>> also not true. >> one of the big tore is stories of the year, roger ailes, chairman of fox news channel, this network, was ready to step down and help david petraeus run for president. just on its face that is ludicrous. why is something making a very good living who is ceo of the number one cable network on television and who has done all of this before, want to con today send to come down to the valley back into partisan politics? this was a totally media created story. why by the way would roger ailes send a fox news contributor to petraeus in afghanistan to communicate this when he has skype, facebook, the telephone and even and in person, if he wanted to do this? i thought it was concocted story without any substance at all. jon: christie, what about the coverage of obamacare and, and the legislation? how did the media do this year? >> not so good. listen i think there's this idea there are conservative media or liberal bent to the media.

of course there are some media that are conservative and some liberal. for the most part what we have in the media is people who want to follow the conventional wisdom and they want a good story and that's where they sometimes get tripped up. there was this idea all along because the media very much want ad horse race that mitt romney was a lot closer to president obama and the election than he actually was. the truth is that the president had a small but consistent lead pretty much throughout the election. therefore we should not have been surprised when he won fairly comfortably. jon: christie, let me stop you there. >> let me finish my point. i'm sorry, the same was true we were talking about obamacare which was that there was this idea that we were going to be that obamacare was going to get struck down by the supreme court. i think a lot of members of the media were caught off-guard when it was upheld and upheld by the supreme court justice john roberts. that is why some people initially got it wrong. jon: the justice who essentially wrote that it may be bad policy but it's not our job as supreme court justices to, you know, fix the decisions of the people.

the president got less than 51% of the vote. i mean it was, quite a landslide or, significant victory i guess in the electoral college but 51, less than, more than 49 is hardly a route. cal, one more take on the big stories of the year. >> i want to follow up because i agree with christie on her last point the media love a horse race rather than a blowout. the other point i would make there are awful lot of commentators on cable tv now with vested interests in both parties and both outcomes. you have, i'm not going to name names because some are on this network. they are promoting certain things that relate directly to their private interests. and i think that's a problem. and confuses public. jon: we have to leave it there. cal thomas, christie, thank you both. news watch tomorrow with on the big stories. year.

harris: right now president george h.w. bush is recovering in the intensive care unit at a houston hospital. he is 88 years old. the former president is being treated for a persistent cough and fever but well-wishers are being told quote, to put the harps back in the closest. mike tobin is live in houston. nicecy as ever, mike. >> reporter: feisty as ever.

the people around the former president george herbert walker bush are being frugal with the information they're giving part in part because this is someone so beloved because people will overreact when they get any information. that being said he is behind me in the intensive care unit at methodist hospital where he has been since sunday dealing with what is described as a stub born fever. the fever resulting from a case of bronchitis that hospitalized former the president in late november. all this being said the staff is acknowledging that the president is pretty sick and as you mention he is 88 years old. they are trying to keep things light. the releases are generally pretty humerous. they're trying to tamp down that the his condition is dire. he has been conversational, even joking with the nursing staff, some of the characteristic humor we've come to know from the former president and that is where we get that quote, that you can put the harps back in the closest. all that being aside, staff around the former president is indicating they're not any hurry to remove him from

the hospital while he is still dealing with this fever, harris. harris: i've seen so many tweets, facebook postings, people are praying for the president all over the world. mike tobin, thank you. >> reporter: you got it. jon: a man and a dog plunged through thin ice. the tense struggle to survive and the dramatic rescue that saved them both, coming up. [ male announcer ] how do you trade? with scottrader streaming quotes, any way you want. fully customize it for your trading process -- from thought to trade, on every screen. and all in real time. which makes it just like having your own trading floor, right at your fingertips. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. try our easy-to-use scottrader streaming quotes. it's another reason more investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade.

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plunged into freezing water, he tried to reach his dog, so he went to call 911. rescuers were getting there and his cousin reached the dog, crawl into the ice, and his cousin then fell in. >> my cousin went to the dog and actually crawl on his belly in the ice and got to him and then lifted up the dog on the ice and he called them up into the vote in the dog was all set. the deeper he got out, the more ice was cracking and he just couldn't get to him. so yes, he did get to him, and the dog is all safe. speak. harris: a happy ending on this friday. the dog and